An ugly site witnessed in the Northland, and an indifferent reaction from the authorities.
My wife and I have both been working a lot and yesterday was our first and only day off together for a few weeks. So we spent it well and had a good time... Except for the animal abuse.
We had just finished having lunch at a favorite restaurant and while leaving the parking lot we witness a man in the car in front of us seizing a small dog by the throat, lifting it up, screaming in its face, and then choke-slamming it into the back seat behind him. We were both too stunned to do anything really practical like follow him and find out where he lived to report to the police, but we did think fast enough to get his license plate and the make of the car. Being good citizens who love animals we set out to right this wrong as best we could.
Our county's police precinct happened to be about two miles away so we drove up there and went in to make a report. The receptionist looked aggravated that we were interrupting her despite the fact she was doing nothing. When asked who we could report animal cruelty to she blinked, annoyed, and said flatly "animal control."
"Okay. Can we have their number?"
She blinks again, looks even more annoyed and like we're stupid for even having to ask these questions, but she scrawls a number and we leave with it. The number turns out to be the central number for all Kansas City government. Apparently you can't just call animal control here. You have to sit through recordings about disconnecting your water service and then sit on hold for fifteen minutes. We finally reached an operator whose indifference matched that of the police receptionist but she put us through to animal control...
...Who if anything were MORE indifferent than anyone yet. In an apologetic voice that was anything but convincing, she explained they couldn't do anything unless we had an address for them to go to. If we only had a license plate, we needed to go to the police. Well we did and the police sent us back to you, lady. Well after wasting more time figuring out exactly what county and municipality we were in when we saw what we saw, we were given another number for another police department whom I called... and who then said they'd call me back! Urgh!
To their credit, I was quickly called back by a detective who seemed very eager to help and who took all the information that I had. He said he'd call back if he could find out anything about the car and the man choking the dog. That was yesterday. I haven't been called back. I doubt I will be.
I love my town, but I can't stand how it's made up of all these little counties and communities all jammed together. It's counterintuitive to everything you're taught to do. Something's wrong, call the police. No, you have to first make sure you're calling the right police. Why can't I call animal control directly? Why don't they have a hotline for animal abuse? Why do they act like they don't even CARE when you finally do reach them with a report of animal abuse?
We had just finished having lunch at a favorite restaurant and while leaving the parking lot we witness a man in the car in front of us seizing a small dog by the throat, lifting it up, screaming in its face, and then choke-slamming it into the back seat behind him. We were both too stunned to do anything really practical like follow him and find out where he lived to report to the police, but we did think fast enough to get his license plate and the make of the car. Being good citizens who love animals we set out to right this wrong as best we could.
Our county's police precinct happened to be about two miles away so we drove up there and went in to make a report. The receptionist looked aggravated that we were interrupting her despite the fact she was doing nothing. When asked who we could report animal cruelty to she blinked, annoyed, and said flatly "animal control."
"Okay. Can we have their number?"
She blinks again, looks even more annoyed and like we're stupid for even having to ask these questions, but she scrawls a number and we leave with it. The number turns out to be the central number for all Kansas City government. Apparently you can't just call animal control here. You have to sit through recordings about disconnecting your water service and then sit on hold for fifteen minutes. We finally reached an operator whose indifference matched that of the police receptionist but she put us through to animal control...
...Who if anything were MORE indifferent than anyone yet. In an apologetic voice that was anything but convincing, she explained they couldn't do anything unless we had an address for them to go to. If we only had a license plate, we needed to go to the police. Well we did and the police sent us back to you, lady. Well after wasting more time figuring out exactly what county and municipality we were in when we saw what we saw, we were given another number for another police department whom I called... and who then said they'd call me back! Urgh!
To their credit, I was quickly called back by a detective who seemed very eager to help and who took all the information that I had. He said he'd call back if he could find out anything about the car and the man choking the dog. That was yesterday. I haven't been called back. I doubt I will be.
I love my town, but I can't stand how it's made up of all these little counties and communities all jammed together. It's counterintuitive to everything you're taught to do. Something's wrong, call the police. No, you have to first make sure you're calling the right police. Why can't I call animal control directly? Why don't they have a hotline for animal abuse? Why do they act like they don't even CARE when you finally do reach them with a report of animal abuse?